The man chose not to reveal his identity, explaining that his faith teaches that charitable acts should be anonymous

Surrey: Surjit Singh Virk has been driving buses for 16 years and has seen it all. But what he witnessed this week on the No 341 route touched his soul in a way that he’s never experienced before.

Transit operator Surjit Singh took these two photos on the bus. The first one shows the grateful recipient wearing the shoes. The second one shows the donor walking away barefoot

A man sat alone on the bus with two plastic hairnets covering his feet instead of shoes. Another passenger, upon noticing his footwear, promptly took off his shoes and socks, and gave them to the stranger, hopping off the bus barefoot.

“It made my heart melt,” Virk explained later. “He just took his shoes and socks off and said, ‘You can take these, don’t worry about me — I live close by and can walk.’” When reached by phone, the kind-hearted man asked the media not to identify him, explaining that his Muslim faith teaches that charitable acts should be anonymous.

He is a 27-year-old resident of Surrey, British Columbia in Canada, and was coming from the mosque nearby. The generous act has elicited incredible response online.

‘We are all one family, if anyone in our family was without shoes and we had ample, this is exactly what we would do. Once in a while, we need this reminder to save our humanity,’ said Facebook user Baljit Sabharwal.

‘Mercy and love are the foundations of all faiths. I don’t know a faith that does not teach generosity. In fact, it’s a foundation of Islam — a pillar of faith’” added another Facebook user, Salim Jiwa.